Cisco Systems is unveiling an Android-based tablet PC designed as a mobile
communications and collaboration platform for businesses.

At its Cisco Live event June 29 in Las
Vegas, company officials showed off the Cisco Cius,
the latest addition to a growing collaboration portfolio that includes WebEx,
TelePresence and Quad.

The Cius will give businesses a lightweight mobile device that
will integrate with all of those Cisco collaboration technologies and be
managed by Cisco's Unified Communications Manager software and offer
enterprise-level security.

It also opens up another avenue through which businesses and
their employees can access the growing Android application store, and will help
expand that selection of applications by giving developers Cisco collaboration
APIs through an SDK (software developer kit).

Cius is part of Cisco's larger Borderless Networks initiative,
which is designed to create an environment that enables users to access the
Internet at any time from anywhere using any device.

The tablet is the latest example of how business collaboration
is changing, according to Tony Bates, senior vice president and general manager
of enterprise, commercial and small business at Cisco.

"This platform can transform how health care professionals
advance patient care; how retailers deliver service experiences to consumers;
or how universities deliver world-class education to their students,"
Bates said in a statement. "Best of all, Cisco Cius offers IT functions a
way to dramatically lower the cost per user of provisioning those new
experiences."

Not everyone sees the usefulness of such a device. Van Baker,
an analyst with Gartner, said he could see how a device like Cius would play
well in the consumer market, but its practical business application isn't
clear.

"If it's for an enterprise's use, I'm having a hard time
figuring out why they would want to use this tablet as opposed to a notebook
with a good integrated Webcam," Baker said in an interview.

There are some instances where it could prove worthwhile, he
said, such as if an engineer is working on a project and wants to use the Cius
for its video conferencing capabilities. However, in everyday enterprise life,
most workers can get the same or similar experience that the Cius offers from a
laptop with a good Webcam running Windows, Baker said.

The consumer market is different, he said. Consumers are more
willing to give up some functionality for ease of use. But not so in the
enterprise.

The Cius-which will be going out for customer trials in the
third quarter, with general availability in the first quarter of 2011-features
a 720p high-definition front-facing camera, a 7-inch high-resolution screen and
a single button for TelePresence interoperability.

The device also makes it easy for users to find their contacts,
offers an accelerometer that orients applications for portrait or landscape
modes, and has wide wireless support for 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi and 3G, with 4G
capabilities coming later.

The battery offers up to 8 hours of life under normal use, and
the Cius comes with an optional HD audio station that includes a telephone
handset speakerphone, HD DisplayPort and USB
ports.

Cisco officials also said because the tablet can be used in a virtual
desktop environment, it can help drive down corporate operating expenses and be
integrated with cloud computing environments.

The Cius is the latest move by Cisco to meet a growing demand for
consumer technology in the business world. At a TelePresence conference held to
unveil the Cisco
Quad enterprise social networking offering, company officials said there is
a strong and growing trend of integrating consumer products-such as the Apple
iPad, Skype VOIP (voice over IP) and Cisco Flip video camera-into the corporate
space.

Tablet PCs have been around for many years, but it wasn't until
Apple launched its iPad this year that the market appears to be taking off. A
host of other vendors, including Dell, are bringing their own tablets to the
market.